The Open System Interconnection (OSI) model defines a networking framework for implementing protocols in seven hierarchy layers. Control is submitted from one layer and delivered to the next layer through Service Access Points (SAPs), starting at the Application layer in one station and proceeding to the bottom layer or Physical layer. The seven layers are: an Application layer, a Presentation layer, a Session layer, a Transport layer, a Network layer, a Data Link layer, and a Physical layer. A Media Access Control (MAC) layer is a sub-layer of the Data Link layer and provides information to and/or receives information from the Physical layer, such as demodulated and decoded packets from downlink receiver circuitry. For example, in burst-mode wireless communications, at the uplink side, the MAC layer submits information to a Physical layer in the form of MAC Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) with a generic MAC header (GMH) containing a Connection Identifier (CID). The downlink Physical layer at the base station arranges the MPDUs for encoding into downlink bursts and arranging the downlink bursts into downlink frames for transmission from a transmitter.
The IEEE 802.16 standard provides an Air Interface specification for fixed broadband wireless communication systems which passes MPDUs through a MAC layer. At downlink reception, since not all MPDUs in a downlink burst are intended for the mobile station, the MAC layer examines the CID of each MPDU in the downlink burst to determine whether the MPDU is intended for reception by the mobile station. Examination of all of the MPDUs requires substantial unnecessary processing time by the MAC processor.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus for a MAC processor to predict which CIDs in a downlink frame are intended for the mobile station so that unintended MPDUs need not be processed. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.